August 27, 2008
Back To School Book Savings
Books | Aug 27, 08
With money tight, it’s worth reminding the millions of students about to buy textbooks that they may well save serious money checking for lower prices online.
This time of year I invariably hear from both faculty and students about savings they find on required books by buying online as opposed to from on-campus brick and mortar stores. And now, with the PriceSCAN toolbar, finding savings is even easier. Just install our spyware-free toolbar, and when you’re surfing your course’s syllabus pages, highlight the title of the book you need to buy, right click and choose “search PriceSCAN for selection”. You’ll see displayed the same price comparison you’d get by coming to our site and searching for that book. Of course, if you prefer you can just use the book search option on our site. Either way, comparison shopping for books on PriceSCAN.com can help protect you from overpaying. And as I’ve argued before (see “Syllabus Savings”), if you want to support your school, do it at a fundraiser, not at the campus bookstore.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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December 19, 2007
Blu-ray, HD-DVD Prices Falling Like A Gentle Winter Snow (And In High-Def You Can Really See Those Flakes!)
Electronics | Dec 19, 07
Some early tech-fan enthusiasm for Blu-ray and HD-DVD was of the sort normally reserved for James Lipton's commentaries on the brilliance of filmmakers behind the likes of, say, "Beerfest."
However, the somewhat tepid response of consumers has motivated repeated rounds of price cuts, and Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the $399 40 GB PlayStation 3 may have, as predicted, introduced further downward price pressure (see "But Blu-ray's An Amazing Technology….OK, What If We Cut The Price, Let You Pretend To Shoot People And Throw In Spiderman 3?"). Now, in the home stretch of the holiday shopping season, introductory-level high-def players are available for less than the price of some iPods.
Consider the Samsung BD-P1400, the top Blu-ray player on PriceSCAN by popularity. Since the Blu-ray bearing PS 3's October introduction, this model has fallen from at least $400 to well under $300, a discount of over 25% to the Playstation 3 (after all, the Samsung doesn't play games).
Time Period: 9/3/2007 through 12/10/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
With Toshiba's HD-DVD standard perhaps feeling the heat from Blu-ray, HD-DVD players are going for even less. The Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player has fallen from $300 to under $215 in the last six weeks.
Time Period: 9/24/2007 through 12/10/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Then again, in the holiday spirit of peace, perhaps you'd like a player that can handle both high-def standards. Both the LG Electronics BH-200 Super Blu Player and the Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray / HD-DVD Combo are being offered by well-known vendors for less than $800. But check availability, as, like peace itself , neither may be immediately obtained.
Oh, and as for Mr. Lipton, he's got a new book out called "Inside Inside", in which you can read about his life and interview subjects, each of the later being more gifted and talented than the last.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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August 12, 2007
Syllabus Savings
Books | Aug 12, 07
Overpaying for textbooks is no way to support your future Alma Mater.
Each year around this time I like to remind students that they may not be getting the best possible deal on required course reading if they make their purchases at their campus bookstore. To guard against overpaying, it's a good idea to get your syllabi in advance, check your school store's prices and use PriceSCAN.com's book price comparison service to see if you can get a better deal by buying online.
Now some might argue that encouraging students to eschew on-campus book purchases may deny institutions of higher learning much needed revenue, be it from a school-owned store, a chain operating on campus under license or a student co-op forced to kick back to the school. So if you're concerned about supporting your college or university, I have a suggestion. Take the money you save buying books online and invest it for the very long term. After three or four decades you could find yourself with a tidy sum, enough that when the time comes to secure a legacy placement for that underachieving offspring, you may find the admissions committee far more understanding ("a distinguished and generous alumnus like yourself should know we'd never judge an applicant purely on the basis of academic performance, or a police record … "). Or, consider letting those funds keep growing until you're in your golden years, and let it be known you're thinking about leaving the stash to your school. You'll find officers and faculty of the university listening attentively to your views on the academic enterprise, interrupting only to considerately inquire as to the state of your health.
But for now, if you and/or your folks are laboring to pay a backbreaking tuition bill while the specter of student loan payback looms on the horizon, why not give yourself a little financial aid and compare book prices online?
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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August 29, 2005
Saving Money On Textbooks
Books | Aug 29, 05
With classes starting shortly at most colleges and universities, it makes sense to remind everyone that a few clicks on PriceSCAN.com can produce very significant savings on textbooks, especially when compared to what one might pay at school bookstores and other retail venues.
Consider one quite typical example: Olivier Blanchard's introductory text Macroeconomics with Active Graphs, 3rd edition (includes CD), used to teach Principles of Macroeconomics at MIT this past spring. While it's available from Prentice-Hall (the publisher) for $129, you can find it for nicely under $100 from well-known vendors by searching on our site. Using this method, a student could save hundreds if not thousands on the required tomes of a given degree program. You can check book prices anytime through our book search feature.
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